Last Friday, our humble family of four was once again visited by Uncle Daniel for a couple of days. Daniel is a dance instructor with a studio in Grants Pass, OR, and occassionally travels to Seattle or Portland for training sessions with other professionals. When he comes this way, he invariably stays with us. We love having him here, and the girls love having "Yuncle Daniel" to play with for a while.
Also of note on Friday: Valerie and I had a meeting with the Principal of the girls' elementary school as well as two teachers. It wasn't what I would consider a negative meeting, because the intent and outcome was that of a positive nature regarding the education and progression of our children. To make a story shorter than it should be: according to the school records received from Texas, Maria and Fatima were started in school a year earlier than is normal for Washington. While some people will point to their dates of birth and insist they are in their proper place, we have accepted the findings of our local educators and agree with them to the fullest.
For now, Maria has been transferred to a Kindergarten class where she excels and has more fun than the First grade class she was in where she constantly needed more assistance than the other students. Maria will be advanced to the First grade at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, and hopefully will be placed in with the teacher she just left.
While Fatima remains behind, and lacks a certain level of maturity some of the other kids appear to have, the school is allowing her to remain in school with the caveat that she will "repeat" kindergarten next year. Valerie and I have put our full faith and trust in these educators, and while this news was a bit of a hard pill to swallow at first, we agreed the situation is best as it currently stands.
Regardless of this "setback", Maria was rewarded two weeks in a row with a message home saying how good her behavior was. We know Maria is sad to have left her former teacher, but we're confident she'll return to that class next year.
Two weeks in a row we got a "HAPPY GRAM" saying how well behaved Maria has been.Monday afternoon Valerie's mother (Grandma Bev) and Sister Veronica (Aunt Roni) came to visit for a couple of days. Valerie had Tuesday off, and while the kids weren't in school, they spent the morning with Mommy, Grandma Bev and Aunt Roni. Because I had gotten off work at 8:00 that morning, I declined to participate in the "girls day" and go to bed instead. It felt so good to sleep...
There was some shopping involved in Grandma Bev's journey north, and the girls ended up with some new clothes and things to play with around the house. Grandma Bev and Aunt Roni also played outside with the girls while the weather was nice, blowing bubbles, drawing pictures or writing their names in side-walk chalk, and even planting flowers in the barrel.
Grandma Bev and Aunt Roni bought flowers to be planted in the barrel. Grandma showed Maria how to get the flowers out the pot and put them in the potting soil.
Fatima enjoyed digging in the dirt more than anything. She was using one of the empty pots to help dig holes for new flowers. It was difficult, because the pot would inevitably pull at the roots/soil of the flowers just planted next to where she was digging.
The finished product looks very nice. There are Hyacinth, Strawberries, and some Yellow/Purple flowers which I think are Pansies, but I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. Good thing I'm not a botanist.Grandma Bev also brings her dog with her when she visits. Little Guy is a terrier mix who is very loveable. He cries when Grandma leaves for work, and sits near the front door eagerly awaiting her return.
Lil' Guy is also a very patient dog, as I believe this is the first time he's had an excited six year old girl put bows on his ears.
As small as Lil' Guy is, he also gets cold. He likes it when people snuggle with him and cover him kindly with blankets.One of the first things Valerie noticed when we received the girls was that Maria has a large navel. Of course this isn't an issue, since I'm sure over time it will "normalize", but tonight the girls were playing with a dime while changing for bed and Valerie got a strange idea. At first Valerie thought a quarter might fit in Maria's navel, but I don't think it's that big. (If it were, I'd be searching for soda money!) Rather than pull out a tape-measure or ruler to judge size, Valerie used the dime the girls were playing with. I don't want to say "miraculously" or appear as though I'm subjecting my daughter to ridicule, but to help people understand I took a picture of my daughter's "navel change".
Seriously, Maria had as much fun posing for this picture as I did taking it. If you click on the picture and get a bigger view, you can plainly see her navel supports a dime. Maybe tomorrow we'll try a penny! (Just kidding...)Yes, this picture was from St. Patrick's Day, but whenever I pull out the camera I feel as though Fatima is screaming "Look at me daddy, take a picture!!!" I know she's not, but she wants to be included in everything, and as soon as a picture is taken she wants to see the picture I just took. Maria is the same way, but I think most of the time she feels a little camera shy.
A "self-portrait" of myself and Fatima. For some reason she wanted to wear Mommy's hat and have a picture taken.
A solo shot of Fatima wearing Mommy's hat on St. Patrick's Day. It's too bad the background is so dark, because this really is a cute picture.This next week is spring break for us, which means I should hopefully have a ton of pictures and great stories to tell. I'd like to say we have a week of adventure planned, but with two working parents at the mercy of Government it's not entirely possible.
Till next time...
